UFC 158 feedback

Sunday, 17 March 2013 11:36

UFC 158

Thumbs in the Middle

Best Fight: Carlos Condit vs. Johny Hendricks

Facebook prelims:

Wanted to see Roop lose since felt he was disrespectful at the weigh-ins putting his chin up atop Duran's head the blowing by him once they broke. And I did think he lost the fight 29-28 but judges didn't agree. Wanted to see T.J. lose since his personality didn't do him any favors on TUF but he got a sick KO. Don't know why Story has a job when the "Spaniard" Brenneman kick his butt and doesn't. His Wanderlai-lite style is going to see him eat lots of KOs in the future.

FX prelims:

Pretty good stuff. Cruickshank has dazzling stand-up but never fully pulled the trigger. Glad Mein another Strikeforce talent got the big win. Elkins' winning streak has been quietly impressive -- needs a Fuel semi-main against a talent.

PPV card:

Slight thumbs-up -- Ricci and Fletcher both have big personalities/looks which helps fans identify with them as individuals but neither showing a ton in the talent dept. so far. Camozzi and Ring didn't excite me on paper and felt sluggish even with Ring's constant angling movement. Ellenberger got a big, expected win and Marquardt needs to move down the cards to featured prelim fights. Loved the Hendricks and Condit fight. I'm a big fan of both but was slightly leaning toward Condit who I've dug since WEC. Very scrappy fight. Great stuff. Main event was about what most expected. GSP wins another fight via decision. Wonder if he'll ever get another finish before he hangs up the trunks. If Diaz wants to take his ball and go home then let him. His contradictory statements and lousy attitude set a bad example especially to young martial artists.

Went to a local bar with the usual friends. Only one was cheering for Diaz and by the first round he was changing his mind. Overall it was a great show, but yet another no-finish win by GSP. After all the "bad blood" between the two it was kind of weird to see them raising each other arms. That's a feud killer, something that Ronda Rousey and Pro-Wrestling are better at. Guess Diaz was telling the truth about the "wolf tickets".

Keep up the good work

Leonardo II Mendez

San Sebastian, PR

TUF

Eh. They kind of build Popeye The Sailor Guy into a compelling character, but then he gets drubbed by Maori Guy in a fairly dull fight. Jones picks Bubba instead of Dreadlocks Guy for the wild card, which I think was wrong. Chael picks Lame Rapper Guy, which is also wrong but he really didn't have anybody who was impressive in losing. From the previews one of them does a stretcher job.

LION FIGHTS 9 MUAY THAI

Thumbs more up than middle. Not as good as 8 but still good, and again, very refreshing to see real Muay Thai rather than the watered down 'kickboxing'.

Best fight: Topic-Sasiprapa for Topic's performance and the upset, Ross-Mendieta for competition

Worst fight: Marcus-Levin for underwhelmingness

KO: Topic

Jason Andrada opens with a clean one punch 1stR KD of Ruiz, who decides not to get up.

Ognjen Topic (which sounds like 'onion topping') in his 7th fight destroys 150 fight+ Thai veteran and multiple stadium champion Paowarit Sasiprapa, scoring several KDs and throws and winning the first two rounds at least 10-8 before finishing with a HK in the opening seconds of the 3rd. Major upset.

Poster girl Tiffany Van Soest takes a wide UD over bigger but only pro debuting Natalie Yip in a mismatch.

The long awaited LHW showdown between Artem Levin and Simon Marcus turns out to be somewhat of a dud as almost the entire fight is conducted from clinch (Schillavello: 'fulfilled the expectations and more'. Uhhh... no.) The stronger Marcus takes the UD and the initial LF LHW title. Levin might wanna think about dancing a little less before and after the fight and a little more during it.

UFC 158

Thumbs slightly up overall. Sort of weak card on paper other the the 3 mains. Most of it was decent in reality, the first two PPV fights pretty much drowned the whole thing in the toilet, but Condit and Hendricks pulled it back up

Best fight: Condit-Hendricks, maybe of the year to date, HM to Cote-Voelker

Worst fight: the two pieces of indy level crap that opened the PPV

KO: multiple tie Dilleshaw, Story, Mein, Ellenberger. They were all pretty much identical, big shot KD followed by G&P. Lavigne's as usual incompetent reffing robs Elkins of being in the mix.

Sub: none

Decent fb opener with Roop, somehow operating at 135 @ 6'1 or 2", getting credit for fighting off his back and the UD over Duran. Dilleshaw WAY too much for Tamura and feints him out of his socks and finishes him with a high knee and G&P early in the 2nd. Ditto Story who walks right through Mulhearn and bombs him out early with only striking.

On the fx midcard, Makdessi accelerates the last half and takes the 29-28 UD over Cruikshank in what mostly resembles a point karate fight. Jordan Mein in trouble early vs. Dan Miller but escapes the arm bar and quickly proceeds to pick Miller apart, drop him and finish him with G&P, becoming the first to ever stop him, very impressive.VERY premature stoppage by (big shock) Lavigne after a flash KD gives Elkins a quick TKO on Carvalho. Either he's letting somebody get killed or he's pulling shit like this. How does he stay licensed to ref? Needs fired. Need rematch. Terrific fight with Cote, looking in shape for the first time in his life dropping to WW vs. Voelker. Voelker's chin is just as good as Cote's. First two are close, Voelker wins the 3rd by a wide margin and should have won the fight but it's Cote's hometown and they give it to him 29-28 U.

The two fights that open the PPV don't deserve discussion. What nerve charging money for shit like that. Should have been prelims on hdnet. That one geek needs to go back to the circus.

Marquardt opens well but Ellenberger, perhaps pissed at Buffer's habitual mangling of his name, nails him midround and puts him out.

Buffer announces Condit and Hendricks as 'the main event of the evening'. Turns out he was right. GREAT fight. Condit takes Hendricks' best shots, perhaps due to Hendricks' hurting his money hand, and rocks him repeatedly standing, but cannot stop Hendricks' TD about a dozen times. However, once they get to the ground, Condit outfights Hendricks working from the bottom. I think Condit won but easily understandable decision with all those TDs. Bottom line Hendricks cements his title shot and Condit should not slip from the loss. Hendricks could be a style problem for GSP. Georges doesn't take a shot as well as Condit, and may not be able to outwrestle Hendricks.

GSP-Diaz after all the bullshit turns out exactly as expected, with Georges able to ground Diaz mostly at will, although it got more difficult as the fight progressed (if you want to call that progress), and as I expected also mostly outboxed him easily except from clinch to sweep the cards. Could have won the whole fight just jabbing like he did with Koscheck. Nicky's boxing is highly overrated. GSP must have been really mad. He passed guard a few times. Have to say... he doesn't quite look 100% since coming back. Not as unstoppable.

Interesting announcement by Dana---next season TUF will be Ronda vs. the Miesha-Cat winner, with COED TEAMS. Shyeah. THAT'LL end well.

Crimson Mask

Thumbs up

Best Match: Hendricks vs Condit

Worst Match: Ricci vs Fletcher

I was pumped for this show because of the main event, but 2 other matches delivered. The Ellenberger KO was great, and Condit vs Hendricks was awesome. The main event was dull, Diaz seemed kind of disinterested to be in there. GSP dominated the whole thing which is kind of what i thought was going to happen, just wish there was more excitement to it.

Sean John

Hi Dave,

Just got home from watching the PPV portion of UFC 158 at a friend's place here in Melbourne (Australia). I also saw one of the facebook prelims.

I give the show a thumbs up.

Much as I had hoped and expected the last 3 fights delivered and were well worth it. First two PPV fights weren't much, but it seems like the undercard prior to that was good.

Best fight was Hendricks and Condit. Worst was Ring and Camozzi, although the first two fights of the PPV were fairly similar.

I disagree with Joe Rogan that Ellenberger might have made a statement regarding Hendricks being the number one contender. There is nothing more for Johnny to do, whereas Ellenberger could fight Rory MacDonald or Damian Maia, or maybe even Tarec. Thought in the 4th and 5th round GSP looked as tired and vulnerable as he had in a long time, but was still able to press and control. The 50-45 score was perfectly fine to me, but I don't think he won the fight by that margin, but that's how the scoring needs to work right now.

Keep up the great work. The website subscription remains one of my best purchases each year.